Changing of the Guard
by Lord Ruby34
Summary: After the Winter War, replacement captions are needed, and two old friends know where to get one. I've only got the Prologue up so far, all other chapters will be longer.


**This is the first story I have ever tried to publish, or let other people read for that matter, so yeah... you've been warned. Oh, and yeah spoilers for those watching the Anime.**

**Disclaimer; I do not own Bleach or any of the characters. Hell, I don't think I own a bottle of bleach.  
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Aizen Sousuke was dead. The Winter War was over. He had died at the hands of Kurosaki Ichigo and his father. Isshin had grabbed Aizen and pinned his arms behind the traitors back long enough for Ichigo to cut the Hougyoku out with his Bankai. The snapping of the bond between Aizen and the Hougyoku had killed him instantly. Gin had already been killed... also by Ichigo. And Tousen was dead as well, Hisagi Shuuhei had made sure of that. All of the Espada were dead as well, all except for the Sexta. But Grimmjow's story is not for today, and he has no part to play in this tale.

But Soul Society's victory was not without price and it was not light. While watching Kuchiki Byakuya and Zaraki Kenpachi fight Yammy, Kurotsuchi Mayuri grew bored. After all he had already evaluated all of the techniques and reiatsu strength of the three combatants. So there he was sitting on the edge of the building, swinging his feet and waiting for the battle to be over so he could collect his samples in relative safety. It was then that a sword stroke from Kenpachi toppled the giant Yammy, who fell on the distracted twelfth squad captain and turned him into something resembling Jello. By the time Mayuri realized something was amiss he was already dead and had no time to use anything from his nearly endless bag of tricks. At least Nemu had time to shunpo out of the way.

Needless to say Yammy found it quite humorous that he had killed a caption by falling on his ass, as did Kenpachi. Byakuya didn't find the situation so funny but he wasn't unduly upset, he hadn't really liked Mayuri much anyway, now if only the same thing could happen to Zaraki and the Kurosaki boy he could be content. Nemu's feelings on the matter were mixed, on one hand he was a sadistic bastard, but on the other hand he was her father. So she decided to let them lay somewhere in the middle, towards complete indifference, which was what she usually felt. She would end up seeing a psychologist about that later, but once again that is a tale for another day and has absolutely nothing to do with the one being told now.

After that Yammy was finally put down with a combined strike to the face from Senbonzakura Kageyoshi and Kenpachi's nameless Zanpakuto. I'll let you in on a secret, it hurt. A lot.

After Yammy died Kenpachi apparently came to the realization that he was actually in Hueco Mundo, a land of near infinite hollow. Which, in turn, meant a near infinite amount of fights. His scream of glee was heard in Soul Society. He was last seen running off into the unmapped expanse of desert that was Hueco Mundo, Yachiru happily clinging to his shoulder. When Ikkaku heard the news he pleaded with Urahara until he constructed a Garganta for him. Yumichika came as well.

Much to Byakuya's chagrin all of Kurosaki's friends seemed to be alright, except for the Quincy who seemed to need a hand reattached. But even that was fixed by the healing powers of Inoue Orihime. It was only a little while longer before his little was healed and asking for Ichigo. Byakuya monotonously informed her that Kurosaki was fighting Aizen in the makeshift Karakura Town. She looked slightly apprehensive at the news but looked like she completely trusted Ichigo to Take care of Aizen.

Back in the makeshift Karakura Caption Unohana had pronounced Soifon's arm unable to be healed. It was as if her arm had died naturally. You didn't heal that.

Fast forward about one year.

Soul Society had a new set of captions, but it was incomplete. The Sotaicho still was in command of Soul Society, and thus squad one, but it was being debated whether or not to institute a new central forty-six. Second squad was led by Shihouin Yoruichi, with Soifon as her Lieutenant. Renji had been promoted and was now caption of the third squad with the command structure under him not changing much, or at all. Unohana was still caption of squad four her lieutenant hadn't changed ether. Probably the most interesting development was the new carrot-topped caption of fifth squad, who had the distinction of being the youngest caption in the history of Soul Society and still looking older than Toshiro. Hinamori served as his Lieutenant. Squad six hadn't changed much the only difference was Rikichi had taken Renji's now vacant Lieutenant spot. Squads seven and eight had no changes at all in the upper tiers of their hierarchy. Squad nine still had no caption, but not for long, it was rumored that Hisagi Shuuhei had almost achieved Bankai. Squad ten hadn't changed and neither had its leaders, Toshiro was still gruff and Matsumoto was still, well Matsumoto. Eleventh squad had no Caption or Lieutenant. Maki-Maki was serving as a temporary replacement. Twelfth squad was led by the once exiled Urahara Kisuke. With Nemu still serving as his second. Thirteenth squad hadn't changed much either, it still had the same ailing caption and it still had two third seats. But now it had a Lieutenant, one Kuchiki Rukia.

But still the Sotaicho had labeled their current force as unacceptable. He wanted a full complement of captions and lieutenants. Which was what he announced at the Caption's Meeting, knowing full well exactly which two captions would speak up and knowing exactly what they were going to say.

Kyoraku Shunsui and Ukitake Jyuushiro opened their mouths to speak...

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**Please Review, and... uh thanks for reading. And Know that I would never have Killed off Kenpachi If it wasn't vital to the story. **


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